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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wind · trunk · kick · hand · kid · ground · cell · shower

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. kick — with a leg
  3. cell — a phone
  4. hand — in cards
  5. kid — to tease
  6. wind — moving air
  7. cell — in biology
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. shower — to wash
  10. wind — moving air
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. kick — a thrill
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. kick — in football
  15. ground — a position
  16. hand — help
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. ground — the earth
  20. kid — child
  21. ground — crushed
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. shower — rain

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com